She never beat around the bush when insulting someone—her straight shots could kill. Ye Qingluan had always been a master of sarcasm.
“What…? What?!”
First, a moment of shock, then their old faces flushed red with rage, their beards nearly standing on end. When the several elders heard Ye Qingluan’s arrogant and provocative words, they were momentarily stunned.
Originally, they hadn’t wanted to bother with such a little girl as Ye Qingluan, but she was really pushing her luck, climbing onto their noses.
“You are recommended by the Sword Pavilion, so you must take responsibility for what you just said! Little girl… ignorance is not your capital for arrogance. Even if you—”
“No matter what, we are still your seniors. For you to be so arrogant and disrespectful…”
The elders began to criticize and lecture Ye Qingluan, but before they could finish, a cold, piercing voice, like bone-chilling air, drilled into their ears:
“Please step aside, okay?”
Blue Ling’er stared at the elders with an icy expression and said flatly:
“My master is very busy. You lot aren’t worthy of wasting my master’s precious time.”
The elders pointed at her in exasperation: “You… you youngsters are so disappointing!”
Yu Yi also found these old men who acted on their seniority irritating.
But after all, she owed Ji Hongye a favor, and since she had agreed to Ji Ruohan’s request to keep a low profile—not to wave the Sword Pavilion token around and cause trouble—Yu Yi decided to hold back a little.
“A few esteemed sirs, please step aside. The situation in the Yunyin Forest is dire, so we need to head there as quickly as possible.” Yu Yi smiled slightly, her charm mixed with a hint of sweetness.
When the nine elders saw Yu Yi’s smile, their hearts, half-buried in the soil, couldn’t help but start racing, as if they had regained the impulsiveness of youth in that moment.
“Heh, no wonder she’s the master—she sure knows how to speak better than these young juniors.”
“Miss, this old man sees that you are kind, understanding, and responsible—a rare gem in the medical world. I would be very willing to exchange some insights privately with you afterward. What do you say?”
Yu Yi maintained a calm and polite smile on her face, but inside she was utterly speechless at these old fossils.
She had only said one sentence, and they judged her as kind, understanding, and responsible—even calling her a gem?
If they knew that she was that famed demoness who made the world tremble with fear, what would their reaction be?
In the end, they were just driven by lust, confused, and talking nonsense.
Yu Yi felt helpless. If she didn’t mask her beauty a little, it would constantly release an invisible charm, captivating everyone—men and women, old and young.
Yu Yi ignored the elders and gave Guan Yue a meaningful glance. After weighing the pros and cons, Guan Yue decided to fulfill his duty and continue leading the way for Yu Yi.
“Hey, they actually dare to ignore us?”
“Let’s follow. I want to see for myself—just what kind of capability they have!”
Noticing that the old men were following, Blue Ling’er whispered to Yu Yi, “Master, those old perverts are tailing us. Should your disciple go take care of them?”
Keep in mind that right now, both Blue Ling’er and Ye Qingluan, the disciples accompanying Yu Yi, were well-known figures on the “Blacklist of Evildoers.”
They would start a fight over nothing. But luckily, it was Blue Ling’er—she would ask Yu Yi first before taking action.
If it had been Su Cheng, those old men might already be in trouble.
“No need.” Yu Yi said flatly. “In fact, Qingluan is hoping they follow. Am I right?”
“As expected, Master knows your disciple best~” Ye Qingluan said leisurely. “If I can’t slap their faces hard with actual results, the joy I got from mocking them just now would be halved.”
Beside them, Guan Yue caught bits of Yu Yi and her disciples’ whispers, feeling uneasy inside.
“These people… are they really reclusive experts? But it’s true they hold the Sword Pavilion token…” he thought silently.
Guan Yue’s feelings were conflicted.
Instinct told him that Yu Yi and the other two were highly suspicious, but there was nothing wrong with them.
The only option was to trust them.
If he randomly doubted them, he might be held accountable by the Sword Pavilion. At that point, this position of his might not be secure.
“Let the verification process reveal the truth,” Guan Yue thought.
No matter who Yu Yi and her disciples really were, as long as they were tested on their abilities, their true colors would show.
Everyone continued deeper into the Hundred Beasts Garden, arriving at an open area.
It felt like stepping into an entirely new environment; the atmosphere around them had changed drastically from before.
The air was filled with the scent of various medicinal herbs, intertwined with a hint of a corrupting aura.
Yu Yi looked ahead and saw a young girl with a bun hairstyle waving toward them. In front of her was an exquisite birdcage.
The cage was decorated with flowers, grass, and branches. Inside lay a small bird, already on the verge of death, its life hanging by a thread. Yet it let out frantic, furious cries—sharp and piercing.
Blue Ling’er knew at a glance that the bird had been infected by Rot Qi.
Guan Yue led the three to the cage. The bun-haired girl stood up and asked, “Father, who are these?”
“They are physicians recommended by the Sword Pavilion, here to undergo a capability test.”
After replying, Guan Yue turned to Yu Yi and introduced her:
“This is my daughter, Guan Ningning. She is in charge of testing your abilities.”
“Oh?” Yu Yi raised an eyebrow and sized up the bun-haired girl named Guan Ningning.
Guan Ningning was around fifteen or sixteen years old, the same age as Yun Qianxue and Chi Ming.
Besides her bun hairstyle, she had a distinctive feature—her short, thick eyebrows looked anything but dull; instead, they were rather cute.
What piqued Yu Yi’s interest was that Guan Yue, as the head of the Hundred Beasts Garden, had his own daughter oversee the physicians’ capability tests?
But that didn’t mean Guan Ningning was just a “nepotism hire.” She must have some special talent.
Otherwise, given the personality of those old men earlier, if Guan Ningning had denied their abilities, they wouldn’t have looked so dejected—they would have argued with her instead.
“What you need to do is to heal it.”
Guan Ningning pointed at the little bird in the cage and said to Yu Yi and the others:
“Half an hour ago, it could still talk to me, but now it’s completely lost its mind. If you can’t cure it, it will die.”
“It is a proud child. It wanted to conquer the sky, to fly higher and higher. But precisely because of that, it strayed into the Yunyin Forest and contracted that corrupting aura.”
Hearing this, Yu Yi realized the amount of information was explosive.
Guan Ningning’s expression was sad: “It used all its strength to fly back. It begged me to save it. It doesn’t want to die yet…”
Flying higher and higher, and only then strayed into the Yunyin Forest?
Could it be that the Yunyin Forest is up in the sky?
And this Guan Ningning… does she have the ability to communicate with animals!?
Just then, a voice that should have been extremely lazy and indifferent rang out—unusually serious—
“Don’t worry.”
Ye Qingluan’s eyes glowed with life energy as she looked at the bird in the cage and said:
“It won’t die.”
One more chapter will be added later tonight. Those who go to bed early, don’t wait up, okay?